ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Another man's trash will be another man's electricity.

After a nine year journey, the St. Lucie County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan by Jacoby Synergy Renewable of Dallas to to permit, finance, construct and operate a thermal conversion facility at the Glades Cut-Off Road landfill to process municipal solid waste into alternative forms of energy.

Under the agreement, the project will cost $105 million, with Jacoby paying $85 million and the county chipping in $20 million. Construction of the facility could start by the end of the year, county Solid Waste Director Ron Roberts said Wednesday.

The county will pay its share after Jacoby builds and operates the facility. How long the facility must be operated before the county pays its share is still to be determined.

The county has been searching for a company to process solid waste and covert to green energy since June 2004 as a way to extend the life of the landfill.

The thermal conversion process produces tons of ash, which is used as an alternative fuel source to create electricity. The facility, once operating, is expected to produce 20 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 12,000 homes.

The electricity produced would be sold to an electric utility company.

Jacoby will own and operate the facility for 20 years, after which the county will pay the company $1 and assume ownership.

"The gasification facility will greatly reduce the volume of the solid waste that is processed leaving only ash residue and waste that is not suitable for gasification," according to a June 11 letter Roberts wrote to the County Commission and County Administrator Faye Outlaw.

Also, the project will help lower gas emissions from the landfill and increase the number of recyclable materials to about 93 percent, adding 80 years to the life of the landfill.

Roberts said the alternative form of energy is expected to create an unknown amount of local construction jobs, and more workers will be needed when the plant is complete.

Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky at Tuesday's meeting said he would like for local contractors to be used to build the facility.

Jacoby was the county's latest attempt to find a trash-zapping company.

Negotiations with Covanta Energy Corp. of Morristown, N.J., mutually ended in December when the company planned to raise the tipping fee, the money charged pay based on the amount of waste a customer unloads, to $57 per ton, which would have resulted in substantial rate increase for residents and other users.

However, Jacoby agreed to a fixed 10-year tipping fee of $33 per ton.

"We were trying to have the newest and best technology for our rate payers without going up in cost," Roberts said.

In 2007, commissioners ended a contract with Geoplasma, of Atlanta, after the company because it couldn't raise the money to pay for the project. Fort Pierce's decision to use a cheaper Okeechobee landfill was also a factor.